In a tale of two halfbacks, the 19-year-old Cleary bagged a hat-trick – two tries coming after Johnson’s absence – and tormented the Warriors with his quick thinking and strong tactical kicking.

He also bagged two assists.

Panthers boss Anthony Griffin said Cleary’s performance was outstanding given the absence of Matt Moylan, the loss of stand-in skipper Trent Merrin and a second-half sin-binning for Corey Harawira-Naera.

“He’s going to be a good player when he grows up. It was just a really mature effort from him,” Griffin said with tongue in cheek.

Like Johnson, Merrin will undergo scans on his knee injury on Saturday.

Do you find yourself logged out of The Roar?
We have just switched over to a secure site (https). This means you will need to log-in afresh. If you need help with recovering your password, please get in contact.

If you could choose from any and every NRL player in the competition, who would you pick in your rugby league dream team? Let us know with our team picker right here, and be sure to share it with all your league-loving mates.

Oldest | Newest | Most Recent

The Crowd Says (3)

If ever there was an example of winning a match “all on your own” it was demonstrated by young Cleary against the Warriors. Both teams were very ordinary but Cleary stood out like a beacon as he grabbed the vital 2 points for his Panthers team and raised the hopes of NSW supporters for future SOO answers. Once again the Warriors showed a lack of intensity and lack of fitness and really only featured off some Panthers errors and in that 10 minute period after the ridiculous sin binning of Harawira-Naera. The injury to Johnson must surely bring another disappointing season to an end for the Warriors.

Any further news on Johnson’s injury? I guess we won’t know until scans on Monday.

Terrible shame for Johnson and the Warriors. The end of Origin usually marks the end of the Warriors surge but this seems an unusually cruel way this year. I hope it’s not as bad as first thought.

On a very selfish note I have Johnson in my SuperCoach classic and draft teams so I will have to find a plan b.

As for Cleary, he’s far and away the best choice of NSW halfbacks. Maybe next year is still too soon but there needs to be a plan to bring him in. By Origin next season he’ll have two years of first grade under his belt.